Whose city is it, anyway?

Few people who visit the City of David are aware that the site is controlled and operated by a private organization, with a clear political orientation and ideological interest.

By ALICE SHALVI

July 13, 2010 11:30

3 minute read.

City of David 224 88.
(photo credit: Courtesy of the Shalem Center)

All over Jerusalem, impressive street advertising signs exhort passersby to come
and see “where it all began.”

And indeed thousands of sightseers –
Israelis and foreign tourists – are heeding the exhortation to visit the City of
David, located in the vicinity of the Holy Basin. Schoolchildren, soldiers,
VIPs, servicemen and women, many of them in officially organized groups, are
streaming to see the excavations which aim at proving that it was here that the
Jewish people first found a foothold. Here King David established his capital.
Here Solomon built the Temple. Hence it is our inalienable right to reestablish
and reaffirm Jewish control over the city – a city that is, uniquely, sacred to
all three of the monotheistic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and
Islam.

If in the past religious fervor motivated warfare, it has now been
joined by equally ardent and potentially destructive fanatic
nationalism.

Few people who heed the call to visit the City of David are
aware that, uniquely in Israel, the site is controlled and operated by a private
body, the Elad organization, which has a clear political orientation and
ideological interest. In an extraordinary and patently illegal move, the State
of Israel has privatized one of the most sensitive sites in the
country.

The Nature and Parks Authority, which according to the law
officially bears responsibility for managing the country’s parks, has in
this
case abdicated its responsibility and transferred the management to the
Elad
organization counter to all rules of proper administration. Adding to
the
impropriety, the Nature and Parks Authority violated its duty to operate
with
transparency by refusing to reveal details of the 2005 agreement in
which it
transferred the management authority to Elad without a legal
tender.

FULLY EXPLOITING the authority now invested in it, Elad controls
the development of the City of David site, determines the route and
contents of
the guided tours, manages the Visitors’ Center and has a say in any
future
development of the site. It also charges entrance fees, as is customary
in the
country’s national parks.

Any sophisticated participant in the guided
tours can hardly fail to note the degree of indoctrination that
characterizes
their contents.

Elad is undoubtedly a major player in the current trend
of “Judaizing” east Jerusalem. As part of this process, the
Palestinians’
“narrative” is being patently ignored and undermined and their civil
rights are
infringed.

Most recently yet another act by an official entity threatens
the delicate fabric of coexistence in east Jerusalem. Mayor Nir Barkat
has
announced plans to establish an imposing archeological park near the
same area
of Silwan. The plans call for the demolition of 22 houses in the area,
which the
city claims were built without the necessary permits. (Ironically, the
illegally
constructed multi-story Beit Yonatan which towers above the overcrowded
hovels
of the village has not yet been evacuated and sealed, in defiance of a
court
order.) Few people are aware that the residents of Silwan, at their own
expense,
sought professional experts to draw up a plan which would enable them to
engage
in the kind of urban renewal that has taken place in other hitherto
neglected
areas of the city. Implementation of the plan would have enabled them to
obtain
building licenses and to develop the infrastructure essential to decent
living
conditions, including viable roads, water supply and sewage. The
Jerusalem
municipal authorities arbitrarily rejected the plan without even
bringing it
before the relevant planning forums.

There is surely a limit to the
extent to which any underprivileged, persecuted and humiliated
population can
bear the tyranny of overlords. Would that the mayor of Jerusalem and
likeminded
chauvinists could appreciate how much a policy of “live and let live,” a
recognition of the needs and human rights of all sectors of the public,
Jews and
non-Jews alike, respect for the beliefs and customs of the “other,”
respect for
the places holy to different religions, might transform Jerusalem into
that
which its name signifies – Ir Shalem, the City of Peace.

The writer, an
Israel Prize laureate, is part of a group of academics and civil
servants who
petitioned the High Court of Justice to annul the agreement between Elad
and the
Nature and Parks Authority.

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